Van Dijk: Nobody Can Replicate Salah, Liverpool’s New Attack Must Step Up

• Virgil van Dijk says nobody can replicate what Mohamed Salah did as a winger, and that Liverpool’s new attackers must now prove themselves “every three or four days”.
• Alexander Isak has scored in his last six league matches, and Sunday’s 2-0 win over Brighton was the first game in which Isak, Bradley Barcola, Florian Wirtz and Cody Gakpo clicked together.
• Teenager Rio Ngumoha has completed 66 per cent of his dribbles from the start of last season, ahead of Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku on 52 per cent.

Nobody Is Pining for Salah, but the Captain Wants More

Mohamed Salah’s name has not come up once at Anfield this season. Virgil van Dijk, though, will not let the new forwards relax.

The Liverpool captain was asked about life after Salah, who left in the summer after cutting his contract short by a year following a disappointing campaign. “I think it is the reality. What Mo has done for so many years as a winger, I don’t think anyone can replicate that,” van Dijk said. He gave the same credit to two other Anfield greats: “The same goes with Sadio [Mane] and Bobby [Roberto Firmino].”

Then he turned to the players in the building now. “Hopefully that is going to happen again and that is what we work for but now it is time for others and others have to step up,” he said. “We can always think it was better back in the day but that is not the mentality that it should be at a club like Liverpool and I don’t feel it has ever been.”

A £364m Attack Starts to Click

Salah left behind a wealth of goalscoring records and has scored 10 in 10 games for his new club, Trabzonspor. At Liverpool, there is a general acceptance that everybody has moved on and nobody is pining for the 34-year-old.

Van Dijk’s comments came after the 2-0 win over Brighton, the first game in which Isak, Barcola and Wirtz, who together cost £364 million over the last two summers, looked like a unit alongside Gakpo. Isak scored for the sixth time in six league matches, set up by Barcola after a deflected Wirtz shot had broken the deadlock. Rio Ngumoha, the 18-year-old who changed Liverpool’s previous two matches, was still waiting on the bench.

The result lifted Liverpool into the top four with a fourth clean sheet of the season. Their only league defeat has come at home to Manchester City.

Van Dijk praised the second goal as “class”, and he pointed to more than one good spell already this season. “At a club like Liverpool you have to do it every three or four days,” he said. “That is always the challenge, but it is a nice challenge. I’m pretty confident that it is going to be fine.”

The Teenager Carragher Calls a Future Superstar

Ngumoha is one of those “others”. Before the Brighton game, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher labelled him a “future superstar” after he set up two goals in the Champions League win over Villarreal. At 18 years and 52 days old, he became the third-youngest player in the competition’s history to provide two assists in one game, after Warren Zaire-Emery and Theo Walcott.

His nine successful dribbles in that game took his Champions League total this season to 18, six more than Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal in second place. In the Premier League, his average of 4.47 successful dribbles per 90 minutes from the start of last season puts him ahead of Doku. His 66 per cent success rate is well clear of any of the other 150 players who attempted at least 35 dribbles in that time, and the average for that group is 42 per cent. He has played far fewer minutes than most of them, so the figure still has to stand up over a longer run.

Carragher also has a view on his future. He said he hopes Ngumoha signs a new contract, adding that “he could be the best winger Liverpool have got”. Liverpool’s Andoni Iraola was positive but kept his feet on the ground. “He struggled defensively in the first half,” Iraola said, before adding that Ngumoha is “still 18” and “not the full package”.

Defence Rebuilt Too

The captain also had good words for a restructured back line. Ronald Araujo, on loan from Barcelona, has been an instant hit on the right. Jérémy Jacquet, a £60m signing from Rennes at 21, is looking an astute buy. “He is doing very well,” van Dijk said of Jacquet. “He just has to keep going and let’s see where the ceiling will be. I don’t think it is there yet, so keep going.”

The message to the front line was the same one. Liverpool have moved on from Salah, and their captain expects the proof every three or four days.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.

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